


Alter Ego

by neutralize



Category: Yume Nikki | Dream Diary
Genre: Body Horror, Horror, Other, Suspense, Vague Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-03
Updated: 2014-06-03
Packaged: 2018-02-03 06:37:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1734749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neutralize/pseuds/neutralize
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><blockquote>
  <p>When she opens her mouth she tries to scream—but all that comes out of Poniko is a sickly sounding gurgle that echoes in her head.</p>
</blockquote><br/>Poniko, and experiences in her own Dream World.
            </blockquote>





	Alter Ego

**Author's Note:**

> Practice with writing horror and using less than 1000 words? Yeah, I’ll take it.
> 
> Writing one of several theories of what’s the deal between Poniko and Uboa. You can probably make better sense of this than I can, because it’s 6 in the morning as I type this.
> 
> Very loosely inspired by the manga, but seeing as I don’t happen to particularly care for it, this is set in the games.

The door beckons her.

Nothing about this door that’s especially outstanding. In comparison to the glowing neon door, and the one plastered with eyeballs, it’s boring, a muted, modest indigo with violet accents. But something in her chest stirs and her arm reaches out to the doorknob before she realizes it. The doorknob is cold, and it bites into her palm.

A vast expanse of white greets her when she opens; her breath curls around her, lingering like some sickly miasma. She walks, not sure where she’s going and equally uncertain of when she’ll stop.

The igloo is the first change of scenery she encounters, not counting the sparse trees gathering diamond dust on their needles. She crawls inside and there’s a pool of shimmering pink.

The feeling in her chest stirs again, and she submerges herself.

The Pink Sea is humid and breezy, a stark contrast from the dry cold of the Snow World. She winds around the shoal until she spots the balloon; reflexively her fingers curl around it and suddenly she’s knee deep in lukewarm water. Yards ahead, a lone green balloon sways in the distance.

When she touches the green balloon, she’s back on the shoal but there’s a conic house ahead of her now. It’s no more than two or three meters away, she guesses, but somehow it looms and makes her feel minuscule. It radiates malice.

She enters the house anyway.

It's dark; in the dimness she can make out what she assumes to be furniture but there’s something in the center of the room she can’t discern. Fear is pulsing through her, but her body works against her. She isn’t controlling it anymore, merely a guest observing. She steps inside and flips on the lights.

The hairs on her neck stand on end, and a shudder ripples from the small of her back, down to her toes.

She’s not sure what is in the middle, except that it’s not human: it’s a black mass her size, with a white face endlessly staring, mouth upturned in a grotesque mockery of a smile. She whirls around in a moment of clarity and wrenches the doorknob and finds out, with cold horror, it's locked.

It moves with surprising speed and envelops her body in thick, black ooze; it slides up her arms, covers her chest and coats her neck. It forces itself past her lips and spreads inside her ears.

When she opens her mouth she tries to scream - but all that comes out of Poniko is a sickly sounding gurgle that echoes in her head.

\--

\--

Poniko doesn’t know how much time passes after her transformation, but she’s nevertheless stunned when one day a mute girl with braids and a weary face nonchalantly walks inside. She can’t fathom how she got in; the door has been locked every time she’s tried to escape.

All she does is mess with the lightswitch. It drives Poniko mad; she wants to ask her why, why she isn’t running away to escape, but she can’t - her voice died the moment she took her own steps inside.

The lights dim, then brighten. Dim, brighten. Dim, brighten.

Poniko feels a familiar lurch in her stomach - it’s getting angry.

She wills this stranger, this stupid awful girl, to understand the warm, soft colors beguile a terrible fate, and there’s still time to go, and turn around -

The house darkens, and Poniko turns inside-out.

If the girl is at all terrified of her transformation, she doesn’t show it. She remains still a very long time, before digging into her pockets. Even in the shadows, she can see the blade of the knife glimmering like a silver smile. The girl walks towards her, knife brandished, and shoves it deep into her belly -

Poniko jolts awake with such force, she nearly falls out of her bed. The air is punctured with her heavy breathing and her pillow is drenched in sweat. For several minutes, she is too stunned to move from her position, but her mind is racing wildly with frantic thoughts, and eventually they stop at a single, terrifying question.

She forces herself to fall deep asleep, and she wastes no time tearing through the Snow World, the Pink Sea, the shoals -

She wrenches the door open to the conic house, nearly taking it off its hinges. In the middle sits a young girl with braids and a weary face.

With shaking fingers, Poniko switches the lights off.


End file.
